Johnny B. Goode
"Johnny B. Goode" was the signature song performed by Marty McFly and the Starlighters at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance on November 12, 1955. History Marty introduced the song as "an oldie", and instructed the band to play a blues riff for a backup. To the audience and the band it was like nothing they had ever heard of before, to which Marvin Berry called his cousin Chuck Berry and let him listen to the new sound. As Marty got more erratic with his guitar playing, the audience and band stopped dancing and covered their ears at his last high note. Marty then realized that the audience "wasn't ready for that yet, but their kids will be." The scene The videos below comprise the scene described above. Back to the Future: The Game *If you click on the microphone in the Speakeasy, Marty will start to sing "Johnny B. Goode" on-stage, only to stop before the first lyric.Back to the Future: The Game - Episode 2: Get Tannen! Behind the scenes *"Johnny B. Goode" was actually composed and first performed by Chuck Berry in March 1958. *Michael J. Fox's performance of the song is one of the signature moments of Back to the Future. Marty's singing was dubbed by Mark Campbell. Fox asked guitarist Paul Hanson to teach him the precise sequence of chords, so that it would appear that Marty's guitar playing would match with the soundtrack. However, guitarist Tim May, rather than Hanson, recorded the actual music. Hanson appeared on film as the bass guitarist for The Pinheads. *During the part where Marvin is calling Chuck Berry, Marty starts doing Chuck's famous "duckwalk". Afterwards he imitates four other famous guitarists: he taps the guitar like Eddie Van Halen, plays the guitar behind his head like Jimi Hendrix, contorts himself on the ground like Angus Young, and kicks over the amplifier like Pete Townshend. *On the final guitar solo, we can hear riffs and melodic structures from some of the most important rock music genres made until mid 1980s on progressive sucesion: Rock 'n roll (late 1950s), Surf Rock (early 1960s), Hard Rock (late 1960s - early 1970s), Heavy Metal (mid 1970s) and Thrash Metal (early 1980s) *Despite Marty's instructions, both Chuck Berry's original recording and the rendition heard in the film are actually played on a "B flat" blues scale, not "B". Nevertheless, Marty's fingers do appear to be playing the song on the "B" blues scale in the film (assuming the guitar is using standard tuning). *On the commentary of the first film, Robert Zemeckis confirmed that the "Johnny B. Goode" scene was nearly cut from the finished film because according to him, it was the only place in the film where the storyline stopped for Michael J. Fox to do the performance. However, Arthur Schmidt, one of the editors of Back to the Future, suggested keeping the scene for the preview screening of the film, and it was finally left in the finished film. *Technically speaking, since Marty performed the song before the actual song was written by Chuck Berry in 1958, yet Marty learned the song from Chuck Berry's recording of it, that makes this a Bootstrap Paradox. *Despite the fact that "Johnny B. Goode" was not released as a single until three years after Marty played it at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, it is odd for the students at Hill Valley High School to find the song particularly groundbreaking, as rock and roll had already been a well-established presence on the mainstream pop charts for roughly a year by November 1955, including Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" charting at #1 for several weeks the preceding summer. Even Chuck Berry himself was already famous by the time of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, thanks to the recent success of his breakthrough hit "Maybellene" which was a rock and roll song like "Johnny B. Goode." Lyrics Here are the lyrics of the version of "Johnny B. Goode" that Marty performed. The song actually consists of three verses and a chorus, but Marty sings only the first verse and then the chorus twice. Verse 1: Way down in Louisiana close to New Orleans Way back up in the woods among the evergreens There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode He never ever learned to read or write so well But he could play the guitar just like he's ringing a bell CHORUS: Go, go Go, Johnny, go, go Go, Johnny, go go go Go, Johnny, go, go Go, Johnny, go go go Johnny B. Goode Go, go! Go, Johnny, go, go Go, Johnny, go go go Go, Johnny, go, go Go, Johnny, go go go Johnny B. Goode Reference Appearances *''Back to the Future'' *''Back to the Future Part II'' *''Back to the Future (video game)'' External links *Original lyrics of "Johnny B. Goode" at Genius.com Category:Music